The Wire – Unlimited Editions: Colorfield Records

Begleitend zu seinem Bericht über Colorfield Records in The Wire 496 stellt Daniel Spicer eine Playlist vor, die er gemeinsam mit Labelchef Pete Min zusammengestellt hat.

Colorfield Records ist das geistige Kind des Toningenieurs und Produzenten Pete Min, der in seinem eigenen Studio Lucy’s Meat Market im Nordosten von Los Angeles arbeitet. Seit seiner Gründung im Jahr 2021 hat das Label mehrere Dutzend Alben veröffentlicht, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Dokumentation von Künstlern liegt, die Teil der lebendigen lokalen Jazz- und Jazz-nahen Szene sind. Bei jeder Veröffentlichung arbeitet Min eng mit den Künstlern zusammen, ermutigt sie, spontan im Studio zu komponieren, neue Arbeitsweisen auszuprobieren und sich oft mit ungewohnten Instrumenten auseinanderzusetzen. Das Ergebnis – von Min als „geformtes Chaos“ bezeichnet – ist überraschend, unvorhersehbar und klingt oft wie nichts, was die Künstler zuvor aufgenommen haben.

Larry Goldings
“Earthshine”
From Earthshine (2021)

Probably best known as a Hammond organ player, Larry Golding is a keyboardist who has worked with an impressive roster of jazz musicians including Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Michael Brecker. On his Colorfield debut, Earthshine, he forgoes the funk in favour of more ethereal moods. The title track is built on plangent piano chords – both serious and soulful – with lush textures creeping in like a warm fog. A wistful synth and Harry Allen’s gentle sax refrains accumulate small details, creating a disarming depth in a track lasting just under three minutes.

Anna Butterss
“Doo Wop”
From Activities (2022)

Australian-born bassist Anna Butterss has become a mainstay of the West Coast jazz scene, through engagements such as playing in guitarist Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet. Butterss’s solo debut, Activities – on which they play bass guitar, double bass, guitar, keyboards, synths, percussion, flute and vocals – was constructed at Lucy’s Meat Market from chopped and shaped snippets of improvisations. “Doo Wop” has a dreamy, sun-kissed, nu-soul vibe, with laidback, layered “ooh-wah” vocals, and bass and guitar luxuriating in dubwise echoes, before a fleeting, atonal guitar solo chucks a handful of grit in the ointment.

Benny Bock
“Dynamo”
From Vanishing Act (2022)

Pete Min says of Benny Bock: “He’s a young guy, just 26. He came into town, and I got introduced to him. He sat down on some keyboards, and I was like, ‘whoa!’” Bock’s 2022 debut, Vanishing Act, is a rich instrumental tapestry pulling together threads of jazz, ambient, classical and electronica. “Dynamo” sets off with a chopper blade rhythmic thrum embellished with lush synth swells and minimal robotic percussion. Piano chords sketch a yearning vulnerability, topped off with regular Colorfield collaborator Daphne Chen’s heart-bursting string arrangements. It’s a mini odyssey packed into three quick minutes.

Brad Allen Williams
“Technologia”
From œconomy (2023)

Though primarily a guitarist, Brad Allen Williams plays every instrument on œconomy – save for drums by Mark Guiliana on a few tracks and his own string arrangements brought to life by The Section Quartet. “Technologia” sidles in as gently rippling electronica with soulful guitar voicings, then suddenly unfolds into romantic luxury with gorgeous strings rushing up out of nowhere. Guiliana’s popping groove kicks in and the strings reciprocate with stabs and swoons like Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra. For the last two minutes, the drums drop out, delivering us into a rich, dreamy reverie of strings and guitar.

Amy Aileen Wood
“Rolling Stops”
From The Heartening (2024)

Drummer Amy Aileen Wood has played with singer Fiona Apple – who also appears on Wood’s The Heartening alongside the likes of Daphne Chen and saxophonist Nicole McCabe. Coaxed far out of her comfort zone by Min, Wood delivers an album of peculiar beauty. Its opening track, “Rolling Stops”, feels like a West Coast spin on the spartan art rock of This Heat. Muffled thuds, breathy exhalations and louche toms build a loose rhythmic framework for absent minded wordless vocals, wheezing horn blurts, lurid cello scrapes and a sweet sax solo. Henry Cow reimagined as 90s Chicago post-rock? Maybe.

Nicole McCabe
“Running Backwards”
From A Song To Sing (2025)

McCabe’s own Colorfield date, A Song To Sing, followed on from her appearance on Wood’s and, though her fourth album under her own name, finds her taking a fresh direction. It’s based around spontaneous, in-studio explorations of keyboards and percussion, with which McCabe constructs neat electro rhythm tracks. “Running Backwards” is a great example, embellished with sonar pings, mellow ripples, lushly multi-tracked horn parts and a cartwheeling sax solo. The album has room for other moods too, as on “Inner Critic”, which finds McCabe’s sprightly horn duelling with drummer Justin Brown on an old-fashioned free jazz blast.

Tamir Barzilay
“The Hungry Moon”
From Phosphene Journal (2025)

Colorfield’s latest release is Phosphene Journal by Tamir Barzilay, an Israeli multi-instrumentalist usually operating as a drummer and guitarist. Here, he gets to grips with synths, drum machines and analogue gear, unearthing some devilishly imaginative moments. “The Hungry Moon” lumbers into life with a Moondog syncopated rhythm, over which a ghostly vocal choir emerges, swiftly nudged out of the way by guest vocalist Sharada Shashidhar’s wordless exultations. A deep dub feeling bubbles up, with Stu Brooks on bass and Barzilay riding the echo-delay rimshots before a final heavenly shudder. Like so much of Colorfield’s output, it seems to exist in a world beyond genre.